Arizona: Open for Business

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Though his press secretary denies it, Ducey is looking ever more like a guy with senatorial aspirations

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey had a chance to stand tall. Instead he rewarded the abysmal behavior of union teachers who abandoned their students to strike for a massive 20% raise. He played tough for a nanosecond, telling the teachers there was no pay hike in the near future, then reneging, followed by an acquiescence or two preceding the final capitulation. If nimble Ducey didn’t have his eye on a mighty political payoff, he could fill the role of state contortionist.

Instead of emulating President Ronald Reagan who on Aug. 5, 1981 fired 11,359 unionist air traffic controllers of the almost 13,000 who went on strike in defiance of his order for them to return to work, issued two days earlier.

Reagan, a former two-term Screen Actor’s Guild union president, didn’t stop there. He declared a lifetime ban on the rehiring of the strikers by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Within days the FAA began accepting applications for new air traffic controllers, and ultimately the Federal Labor Relations Authority decertified the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Association (PATCO). Robert Poli, PATCO president, was found in contempt by a federal judge and ordered to pay $1,000 a day in fines, for the disruptions his union caused.

There were inconveniences during the strike and after Reagan made good on his threat, (video) but such a strike never happened again.

Ducey is thinking politically instead of on behalf of Arizona students abandoned by their striking teachers, who should also have been fired if they didn’t return to work. He appears to be letting his future political aspirations get in the way of sound judgment. Ducey’s longtime friend and mentor John McCain, diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer in July 2017 has remained at his compound in Cornville, AZ. missing crucial votes. The Arizona senate seat is not a museum piece.

Ken Rudin, Political Junkie, answers the questionabout governors appointing themselves to the U.S. Senate. It has happened. Of the nine going back to 1933, all but two were Democrats and the results were uniformly dismal.

Education Week, a publication of the liberal teachers’ union, clearly states teachersplan to ride this victoryto effect changes across the Arizona political landscape. The teachers, who overwhelmingly vote Democrat, have no allegiance to Ducey.